When a Nightmare isn't a Dream
by whitem
Summary: Just a weird little night-time story for the kiddies... NOT! (evil laugh) Read and see what weirdness has followed our favorite red-headed hero.


Yeah, while working the Haunted House this year, a funny looking Plot Bunny knocked on my door and this Halloween story idea was born. This doesn't necessarily mean I'm done with my Break, I just needed to make sure I could still write a freaky story.

Disclaimer: As always, I gain no monetary compensation for using the Kim Possible characters. (though I wish I did…)

When a Nightmare isn't a Dream

Kim woke with a start, and immediately sat up straight in bed. Her head was on a swivel as she looked around her room, taking in the immediate surroundings. Her desk, her computer… her Pandaroo… Everything seemed in its place, and everything seemed… normal. So why did she wake up as if something was deathly wrong? Was it a dream? Was it a nightmare? Or could it have been something… worse.

Kim's eyes then fell upon one thing that always gave her a sense of dread. It was a silly childhood fear, but it's clutches still held on to her adult mind and left that tingly bit of irrational fear. Her sliding closet door was open.

With her breath caught in her throat, Kim knew that there weren't any monsters in her closet set to devour her as soon as she closed her eyes. She also knew there wasn't a giant snake under her bed that would wrap around her ankles as soon as her bare feet would hit the floor.

So why did she wake up in the middle of the night only to find out that her closet door was ajar, and that it had an almost nightmarish grip on her?

_It's nothing Kim, it's nothing. There aren't any monsters… there is no such thing as monsters, so go back to sleep._ Those were the words that her mother would tell her every time she would wake up screaming her lungs out as an eight-year-old, and now Kim was hearing them in her head once again.

"This is silly." The red head muttered to herself and lay back down to go back to sleep.

After laying there for about ten minutes, Kim started to finally doze off, and just as she was about to succumb to the 'Sand Man', Kim heard the wheels of the door squeak as it slid on it's track and close. It only took her a few seconds to jump out of bed while grabbing her blanket and heading to the Living Room couch. There, Kim found an infomercial on TV that was quasi-interesting, and fell asleep to some older guy selling the supposed 'perfect pillow'.

…x x x x…

The next morning she woke before anyone else could find her crashed on the Living Room couch and start asking questions. After heading back to her bedroom Kim clicked on the bedroom light, and immediately her eyes shot to the closet door, but once again it was ajar, just as it was when she woke up earlier.

"What the…" The young hero murmured, and slowly went to the closet. Kim saw that the sun was coming up, and now that she had the lights on, this two inch wide space between the edge of the door and it's jamb wasn't near as foreboding as it was last night.

_But why did I hear this thing close?_ She thought, trying to figure out this little mystery.

Slowly Kim reached out to the little recessed hole that worked as a handle to close the door, and just as she was about to slide it closed, Kim thought she heard something rustle inside. _OK, someone is trying to play a trick on me, and I bet it's one of the Tweebs._

Squaring her shoulders, the Seventeen-year-old red head placed two fingers in the recessed brass handle, and Kim forcefully slid the door open so she could yell out…

"I GOT you Twe…" Horror was suddenly etched all over Kim's face.

There in her closet was something… unnatural. It looked like a large dog head, but it was just the skull, floating about two feet off the floor! Where there should have been eyes was a dull red color that filled the socket, and the other spaces in the bone were filled with a black that was darker than anything she had ever seen before!

Before Kim could slam the door shut, a grotesquely shaped bony hand clacked next to her as it kept the door from closing. A deep rumbling growl emanated from somewhere behind a row of long teeth. Before Kim could say or do anything, sharp bony fingers from another hand slashed across her midsection leaving three deep red gouges, and then the mouth of this bony skull opened wide and snapped down on her…

Once again Kim woke up, but this time she was thrashing around in her bed and tangled in her sheets. This time she wasn't quiet about it, and immediately both parents, and even the Tweebs were standing on the steps leading up to her room wondering what all the noise was about. Kim's parents had looks of concern, while her younger brothers almost looked like they were holding back laughter.

…x x x x…

After a short discussion about laughing at their sister, the youngest Possibles were sent off to their room. Anne and James then took the last two steps into their daughter's bedroom as Kim untangled herself of the offending bedding and sat on the edge of her bed holding the bunched up blanket in front of her with her cheeks red from embarrassment.

"What happened Kimmie?" Anne asked with nothing but concern in her voice.

"I…" Kim wasn't sure where to start, so she tried again. "I had a nightmare, and I haven't had one of those in years."

"Would you like to tell us about it?" James asked as he pulled Kim's chair from her desk and sat down while his wife sat on the edge of Kim's bed beside her.

Do you remember when I was real young and would have a nightmare about my closet door being open?" Both parents nodded. "Well… it was one of **those** dreams."

"Well at least it's morning now and it's really not that early." James replied looking at the clock on her nightstand seeing it was about 7 am.

"But it's Saturday Dad, and I wanted to try and sleep in."

"Did you really want to try and go to sleep again, Dear?" Anne asked, and Kim shook her head 'No'. With that, the elder Possible's kissed their daughter on her head and left the young girl alone once again in her room.

…x x x x…

After her parents left, Kim got up and went to her bathroom to start getting ready for the day. As soon as she looked in the bathroom mirror, she let out a little yelp, as there on her bare stomach (she was wearing a half-shirt) were three scratches across her abdomen just above the belly button.

Originally Kim was going to take her time and take a long shower, but this was too important, so she went to her phone next to the bed and dialed her best friend Ron.

After about ten rings, the young blonde boy finally picked up and answered with a very tired sounding voice. "Yello…"

The red head spoke quickly. "Hey Ron it's Kim. I know it's still pretty early for you, but something really gorchy has happened to me, and I'd like you to check it out before anyone else sees what's going on."

It was as if a switch was flipped on the other end of the line, and Ron sounded like he was now wide-awake. "I can be there in fifteen minutes. Will that work?"

"That would be perfect Ron, Thank you SO much. See you then."

Sure enough, fifteen minutes later the doorbell rang, and Kim heard her father call up, "Kimmie-Cub, Ronald's here! Are you decent?"

"Yeah Dad I am. Send him on up, Please and Thank-you!"

Kim's life-long friend trotted his way up to her bedroom, and he found Kim waiting for him with a robe on, sitting on the edge of her bed. "What's up Kim? You sounded a little freaked over the phone?"

"First I need to tell you a little story." Ron slid her chair from the desk over next to the bed just as James had earlier, and sat down to listen to his friend's story.

When Kim finished, she opened the robe just enough to show him the scratches. "Ron? Could you be a dear and… and look in my closet and see if anything is out of place? I really would appreciate it?" When she bit her lower lip after the request, Kim had no idea the lengths Ron would go to do anything for her… at least not yet.

"Sure Kim, no problem." The young blonde went to the closet door and slowly slid the door open. He looked inside, and when he couldn't initially se anything, he took a step further inside and immediately yelped "Something's got me!"

"Ron!" Just as Kim leaped from the edge of her bed, Ron turned back to her with a big grin on his face. "Gotcha."

"Ron!" She groused, crossing her arms. "I should slap you for that. This is serious! Don't you remember the scratches I showed you?"

Seeing that she was truly upset, Ron immediately apologized, and then went to looking back in the closet. After about two minutes, he came back out. "I don't see anything out of place Kim. Asides from seeing you have WAY too many shoes for a normal person. Your mission backpack is in here though.

"My backpack? I thought put that next to my bed right…" Kim looked over to the spot she thought she had left it. "Huh… that's odd. I swear I put over there. Can you grab it and hand it to me?"

Ron did as asked, and immediately Kim started looking through the various pockets. She reached in to one and pulled out a handful of used and unused tissue paper and set it on her bed.

"What's that?" Ron asked, pointing at what looked like a large pendant underneath the pile of tissue.

Kim picked it up and looked at the trinket for a few seconds. "Oh, I remember getting this at that old shop in central Africa about two weeks ago. Remember? We helped that Chieftan catch that lion that was attacking their village?"

"Oh yeah… I remember that! The shop keep wouldn't let us leave until we bought something. You quickly grabbed this pendant from the counter and bought it just so the owner would leave us alone. "

"I wonder if it could have anything to do with my dream?" Kim thought aloud while turning the medallion over in her fingers. She went over to her desk and tapped the space bar, making the screen come on, and she then keyed up Wade.

"Hey Kim… Ron… Good morning. What's up?"

The young hero got right to business. "Hey Wade, I inadvertently bought this in central Africa a couple weeks ago, and was wondering if you could check and see if the design on here could mean anything?"

The young tech genius quickly took a screen capture of the pendant as Kim held it up to her computer's camera, and immediately started typing on his keyboard. "Check this out Kim… The design on the pendant might have something to do with a ritual that concerns…" Wade suddenly went quiet.

"Well Wade? What does it concern?" Kim asked feeling a bit nervous at Wade's hesitance.

"Uhh… something called a… Devil Hound."

Immediately a chill went down Kim's back. "A what?"

Wade double-checked his findings. "Yup, that's what I get… Devil Hound. This also says that if the current owner starts to have strange dreams and/or visions, accompanied by possible physical contact, the owner of the pendant needs to return it to the previous owner, or sell it to a third party. If this doesn't happen, the Devil Hound may continue to torment its current owner until their demise."

"OK… so there isn't anyone I would wish something like this on, so our only option here is to return it to the shop I bought it at."

"Are you sure Kim? I can think of someone right off the bat that we could try and sell it to."

"No… I can't do that to Shego Ron. Besides, I think…"

Ron interrupted, "Oh I wasn't thinking of Shego. Think… 'High School Evil', Kim."

For about five seconds Kim Possible was seriously considering selling the medallion to Bonnie Rockwaller, but then she cleared her head and decided to do the right thing.

…x x x x…

After calling Wade again, Kim was able to get a ride for her and Ron back to Central Africa, and then a short Jeep ride brought the two of them back to the small town and shop. The two teens entered the curio store, and not a soul could be seen at first.

Kim nervously called out, "H… Hello?"

A young girl about twenty to twenty-five years old walked out of a room in the back of the store, brushing dust and cobwebs from her hands. She spoke in a heavy accent, just as the older lady had that was there before had. "Oh, Hello there. I didn't hear you come in. What can I do for you?"

Kim spoke up. "My friend here and I were in your store about two weeks ago, and we purchased this Pendant from an older lady, but we would like to return it if you don't mind?"

"I… I'm sorry? Did you say two weeks ago?"

"Yes. Is… something wrong?" Almost immediately Kim started to get a bad feeling.

"I'm sorry, but I believe that the older woman you are talking of is… err… was, my Grandmother. She took seriously ill about a week ago, and never recovered."

"We're sorry to hear that," Kim replied, "Please accept our condolences."

"Thank-you. Now… you wanted to return a pendant?"

…x x x …

After returning the pendant to the younger woman, Kim and Ron immediately boarded the next flight back home, and arrived back in Middleton quite late at night. Each teen went to their respective houses to get some much-needed rest.

After entering her home, Kim made a beeline for her bedroom. After a one-day roundtrip to and from Central Africa, she was pretty well beat. Knowing that her alarm would wake her up kin the morning, she didn't even mess with removing her clothes and plopped herself onto the top of her bedcovers and proceeded wrap her arms around her pillow.

Just as she started to nod off, Kim heard the distinctive sound of her closet door being slid open.

The End…

* * *

Please don't be too upset at how I ended this. After all, it IS a Halloween story, and it's meant to freak ya out, and hopefully I accomplished that.

So… Happy Halloween a little early… and the next time you go to bed… Sleep Well. Mwahahahahaha!


End file.
